Learning Language From Another Point of View

Candice Slingerland

Selama tinggal kami di Waduk Sermo, saya berkesempatan untuk bekerja sama dengan orang-orang berbakat di bidang pendidikan . Kami, divisi pendidikan memiliki proyek pengembangan masyarakat yaitu menyelenggarakan klub bahasa Inggris yang diadakan selama 3 minggu, dan kami juga mengadakan program ‘Adik AIYEP’ yang pertama di Indonesia. Kedua kegiatan ini terjadi di SMP 2 Kokap, sekitar 5 kilometer dari Waduk Sermo.

Toby dan Luke di SMP 2 Kokap

Pada setiap kunjungan kami ke sekolah, setiap peserta AIYEP tampak profesional dalam seragam mereka. Tak lupa dengan senyuman  manis kami di setiap perjalanan.

Ketika pertama kali kami di sekolah, aku agak terkejut. Dalam pengalaman saya sebagai guru bahasa di Australia, saya sering berurusan dengan remaja yang riuh. Namun, setelah kami tiba di sekolah ada beberapa siswa dan orang-orang yang ada sangat pemalu.Pada Klub Inggris, kami memperkenalkan diri, tapi masih ada kesulitan berinteraksi dengan para murid karena mereka sangat malu. Kami mengatasi rintangan ini dengan permainan asyik, menyanyikan lagu, dan benar-benar mendengarkan apa yang para murid yang tertarik, termasuk aspirasi karir mereka.

Jack and Cordell teach at English Club

Adik AIYEP

Adik AIYEP Program diadakan pada tanggal 3 Januari, setengah jalan melalui kami tinggal di daerah Sermo waduk. Program ini dirancang untuk mendorong siswa baik di Indonesia dan Australia untuk melanjutkan studi bahasa mereka dalam rangka untuk memperkuat hubungan antara kedua negara. Para siswa adalah masa depan kita dan hubungan negara berada di tangan mereka.

Para peserta Indonesia tahun ini memulai program Adik AIYEP selama mereka tinggal di Melbourne dan Benalla, Victoria. Di Kulon Progo dan Jogjakarta, kami  menjalankan sesi yang sama. Selama program Peserta AIYEP menambilkan pertunjukan budaya mereka, serta kelompok-kelompok diskusi tentang Budaya Australia dan kesempatan pada masa depan jika mereka melanjutkan studi bahasa Inggeris. Pada saat ini, para siswa didorong untuk bergabung dengan grup facebook Adik AIYEP dan beberapa peserta dan siswa bertukar nomor telepon. Di Jogjakarta kita juga akan mengadakan program Adik AIYEP.

Aking dengan murid-murid

Setelah itu…

English Club terakhir kami diadakan pada tanggal 7 Januari, dan kami menikmati sekali.   Kami telah tmengadakan tiga sesi dan semua berhasil. Kemudian siswa disajikan dengan sertifikat sebelum  mereka menyanyi lagu-lagu dalam bahasa Inggris.

Saya merasa bahwa waktu kita di Kulon Progo telah sukses, terutama di klub Inggris dan melalui program AIYEP Adik. Sesi terbesar kami adalah 130 siswa dari SMP2 Kokap dan sekolah dari daerah sekitarnya. Saya menerima pesan teks dari salah satu siswa yang menyatakan bahwa dia benar-benar menikmati program dan bahwa dia mencintai belajar bahasa Inggris. Ini adalah persis mengapa kita mengadakan program –program seperti English Club dan Adik AIYEP, untuk mendorong murid-murid untuk menikmati belajar bahasa kedua atau bahkan ketiga.

English version:

 During the AIYEP 2012-2013 participants’ stay in Waduk Sermo, I have had the privilege to work with some very talented people in the education sphere. While we have been here, AIYEP organised an English Club that was held over 3 weeks and held the inaugaral ‘Adik AIYEP’ program in Indonesia. Both of these activities took place at SMP 2 Kokap, approximately 5 kilometres out of Waduk Sermo.

When we were first greeted at the school, I was somewhat surprised. In my experience as a language teacher in Australia, I am used to boisterous teenagers making a lot of noise in the school yard.  However, as we arrived at the school there were few students and those who were there were very shy. During the first English Club, we introduced ourselves, but we found it difficult to interact with these students as they were quite shy. We overcame this hurdle by playing games, singing songs, saying silly things about ourselves and really listening to what these students were interested in, including their career aspirations.

Adik AIYEP

The Adik AIYEP program was held on the 3^rd of January, halfway through our stay in the Waduk Sermo area. This program is designed to encourage students in both Indonesia and Australia to continue their language studies in order to strengthen the relationship between these neighbouring countries. After all, these students are our future and the relationship of our countries will one day be in their hands.

The Indonesian participants this year started the Adik AIYEP program during their stays in Melbourne and Benalla, Victoria. In Kulon Progo and Jogjakarta, we will be running similar sessions. Throughout the program the AIYEP Participants showcased their cultural performances (which the students particularly enjoyed) as well as held discussion groups about Australian Culture and what opportunities are open to them in the future if they continue with their language studies. At this point, the students were encouraged to join our Adik AIYEP facebook page and some of the participants and students exchanged phone numbers. In Jogjakarta we will also be running another Adik AIYEP program, so watch this space and I will update our progress with this brand new program.

Then….

Our final English Club was held on Monday 7^th January and what fun we had. Our shy students from the beginning were gone and some of the participants had their names yelled out by the students as they were excited to see us. We ran 3 sessions on this occasion that were all successful. Then the students were presented with certificates before performing songs in English. We closed off our final English Club hand in hand as we did a giant Hokey Pokey circle.

I feel that our time in Kulon Progo has been a success, especially in the English Club and through the Adik AIYEP program. Our largest session was 130 students from SMP2 Kokap and schools from the surrounding areas. I received a personal text message from one of the students stating that she really enjoyed the program and that she loves learning English. This is exactly why we run programs such as English Club and Adik AIYEP; to enthuse and encourage students to enjoy learning a second or even third language. This experience in Hargo Wilis has certainly encouraged me to continue working along with students and the AIYEP participants in order to make this program happen again.

I hope that our future endeavours in Jogjakarta will produce similar results,

Until then,

Sampai Jumpa and Seeya Later,

Candice

AIYEP 2012 in Immersion Camp

Valley Homestead, November 19-21, 2012

Yes, we are in Benalla now. We will have another three weeks in this phase. However, our first weekdays were not spent in Benalla.  What we have for the first week was at immersion camp. Immersion camp was a camp that  attended by students in year 10 and 11 from many schools in Victoria. There were 45 students in this three days full of fun activities, and the AIYEPers  assisted the Indonesian teacher in whole activities, to make the students better in speaking Bahasa Indonesia. We also meet some Indonesian people there, the language assistants! They are the alumni of Indonesia University of Education who are already in Victoria almost 1 year to be a language assistant in Bahasa Indonesia at schools.

First day

We arrived in Valley Homestead after 2 hours trip from Benalla city, The view in this place was wonderful. Students came and they took a rest after long trip from melbourne. Bell was ringing, calling them for Lunch. They gathered in Dining room and Ronda, the Coordinator of Camp, gave some rules in the Homestead. After lunch Commitee give some ice-breakers for them. First, Speed Dating.  They were facing each other and give some question in Bahasa about their name, school, adress, how many brother and sister and etc. They were really enthusiast with the game. The next game coming. They should find their family from the paper that they got. Wonderful! The clue in the paper written with Bahasa Indonesia and they clearly knew about it. After that, all the people went backside of the camp do some outbound activities. In the evening, the students had some group activities to know more about Indonesia and watched indonesian movie.

Second Day

It’s time for Adik AIYEP. We have an hour to make wonderful experience with AIYEP 2012. We divided the Participants for 4 group and make a discussion about Indonesia and also about AIYEP. The purpose of Adik AIYEP is to make the students become more interested about Indonesia, so that they can visit Indonesia to learn more about the culture, the relation between these two countries, and joning AIYEP can be one of the way to reach it.

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The next activity is ‘Feeling Indonesian’ with Dancing, Singing, Wayang, Martial Art and Cooking. In dancing, they learned some traditional dances from Indonesia, Saman and Tari Piring. They were also cooking Indonesian simple cuisine, such as Mie Goreng, Pisang Aroma and Sate Ayam. They were really enjoy with the meals that they made by theirselves.

In Wayang class there were paper prototype and they have to coloring and cutting that and give some stick to make a wayang. In martial art class, they actually learn how to kick, hit and also some of movement in Pencak Silat. Afterwards, the students have to perform all what they have got in the evening cultural performance. In this show, AIYEPers doing the saman dance and the students performances were fantastic!

Third Day

The last day. After had breakfast, all the people have to pack up the luggages before 9 a.m. the first activity is practicing how bargain in Bahasa Indonesia. The AIYEPers were pretending to sell some stuffs and the students have to bargain before they buy. The second was Amazing Race game. The students had to find some spots which  is on every spot the AIYEPers is ready to give the challenge. The highlight of the day is the Agustusan event. The students played a lot of Agustusan games, such as Lomba Makan Kerupuk, Memasukkan Paku ke Dalam Botol, Sendok Kelereng, Poco-Poco, and that was amazing!

After all the games and had lunch, it’s time to go home. What a wonderful experience in immersion camp! Hoping all we learned and shared can contribute something for the future 😀 . – Adhit & Ollid